[ bird caws ] im jamie colby, and today and im in the pocono mountains of pennsylvania on my way to meet an heir with a headspinning story that will take us back to 1970s manhattan, the era of punk rock, disco and wild parties at studio 54. My name is hugh hooper. Back in 2008, my brother hoop received a very strange inheritance. When he died three years later, he left one twice as strange to me. Hugh, hi. Im jamie. How are you doing, jamie . Nice to meet you. So great to meet you. You know, i dont come out of manhattan for just anything, but i heard your inheritance is way cool. It is. Its crazy. But you can keep manhattan. Ill take the country. All right. Lets see it. You wanna see it . Go ahead. Absolutely. Hughs strange inheritance is actually two separate art collections that belonged to two separate people. Heres some of the first, parked on the pathway outside his home. What is this . Well, this is hoops cars. They call this the musicmobile. Christmas albums, paul simon. [ playing notes ] it still works. And this is just a fraction of the farout fleet he inherited. Everything you could imagine, trucks, cars, little bmw isettas where you had to get in between the headlights. They do need a little bit of repair. Well, i dont have the heart to touch it. Thats because the creator of the auto art is his dearly departed brother, Steven Douglas hooper. This is me and my brother. Steven is born in 1946 and raised in clifton, new jersey. According to big brother hugh, hes a cutup from an early age. My brother was normal until he was about 8, and then he changed. Uhoh. What happened . He started acting like stan laurel and mugging and dancing around. And he always had this crazy sense of humor. The brothers are drawn down two very different paths. Hugh joins the army. Little steven idolizes popart sensation andy warhol and the psychedelic painters of the 1960s. He wants to be part of that scene. As he got into high school, he just got totally into art. Steven takes a few classes at a small art college. Big brother hugh gets married and starts a family. Where did he get the money to pursue a passion and not have to get a real job like the rest of us . Well, steven had a job. He worked in a book binder. He operated a forklift. But when their mother has a Serious Health setback, the brothers must figure out a plan. We decided not to put her in a nursing home, so my brother gave up his job at the book binder, and i just paid the bills. My brother was like my hero. He took care of my mother. Its my obligation. Were blood of blood. In the early 1980s, with their mom in stable health, steven rents a studio in the edgy east village neighborhood of manhattan. And there, in his mid30s, he begins to shine. Hughs now the guy with the wife and daughter in jersey, running a trucking company. So, its not his scene, but he loves stevens stories. He showed up at a party one night in greenwich village. He was wearing a bright blue tux with black fleurdelis. He looked across the room. Somebody else had the same tux. It was tiny tim. They became best friends. The goofy falsettovoiced tiny tim is just one of hoops famous, near famous, or usedtobefamous acquaintances, and hes driven to achieve fame, too. When he gets his hands on an old bmw isetta, he covers it in psychedelic fur. The first hoop mobile is born. I am hoop, the selfproclaimed king of art. My brother loved to introduce us as twins, and then everybody would go, hmm. We didnt even look like we knew each other. I was military. He was hippie. Its not easy to become a wellknown artist. You have to do one more outrageous thing after another. That means turning more and more cars into zany sculptures. Hes the canvertible and the voodoo volkswagen. He actually had a van. He cut the front end off of another van. He bolted it on the back of his. He had two front ends. He said, i dont know if im coming or going. Its the time machine. He covered it in clocks, and he drove all over the place. Around this time, hoop meets a new york preppie name baird jones, who also likes hanging with the glitterati and who has his own unique artistic vision. Youre about to hear about the other half of hugh hoopers strange inheritance. This is a picture that james dean drew. This is tony bennett. Signed bennett. Theyre all signed. Signed by muhammad ali, adolf hitler, charles manson, buddy hackett, Paul Mccartney and more. Thats great. Vincent price. After the break. But first our strange inheritance quiz question. Which 70s hard rock band switched gears to cut the solidgold disco hit i was made for loving you . Kiss, iron maiden or the ramones . The answer when we return. Ive been blind since birth. I go through periods where its hard to sleep at night, and stay awake during the day. Learn about non24 by calling 8448442424. Or visit my24info. Com. On mattress firmness . Fortunately theres a bed where you both get what you want every night. Enter sleep number and the semiannual sale going on now. Sleepiq technology tells you how well you slept and what adjustments you can make. She likes the bed soft. Hes more hardcore. So your sleep goes from good to great to wow only at a sleep number store. Oh, and right now its our lowest price ever on our temperature balancing i8 bed. Save 700. Go to sleepnumber. Com for a store near you. I just want to find a used car without getting ripped off. You could start your search at the allnew carfax. Com that might help. Show me the carfax. Now the car you want and the history you need are easy to find. Show me used trucks with one owner. Pretty cool. [laughs] ah. Ahem. Show me the carfax. Start your used car search and get free carfax reports at the allnew carfax. Com. Dale oh, hey, rob. Whats with the minivan . Its not mine. I dont dale, honey, is your tummy still hurting, or are you feeling better to ride in the front seat . Oh is this one of your motorcycling friends . Hey, chin up there, dale. Lots of bikers also drive cars. In fact, you can save big if you bundle them both with progressive. Id like that. Great. Whoo. Youve got soft hands. He uses my moisturizer. See you, dale. Bye, rob. So, which 70s hard rock band switched gears to cut the disco gold record i was made for loving you . Its a, kiss. The songs cowriter, paul stanley, said he wanted to prove it was easy to make a disco hit. So, where were we . Oh, right. In the middle of a story about how hugh hooper came into inherit not one but two strange art collections. One was a fleet of car sculptures created by his younger brother, steven, also known as hoop or the king of art, if you please. The second collection, as youre about to see, was curated apparently at significant cost by a classic new york character named baird jones. Baird had a standard preppy uniform. Khaki pants, baseball hat, and would send out these little invitation cards. Author Marianne Macy met baird in the early 80s, when hes known as the Columbia University grad student who throws the best parties in town. He was from a social register family. He had numerous graduate degrees. Baird starts collecting art created by popculture celebrities, like these scribbled drawings by miles davis and jimmy stewart. Others are by stars who are also artists, like Anthony Quinn and david bowie. Baird works for clubs and discos like the famed studio 54, where hes a doorman and Party Promoter. He was extraordinary at getting together really unlikely combinations of people from preppy to downtown grunge. The young nightlife impresario rubbed shoulders with hundreds of new york celebs. He leverages those connections to moonlight as a gossipcolumn tipster. Besides inviting me to all of his events, he used to provide gossipcolumn items for me. Richard johnson is a longtime editor for the ultimate big apple gossip column, the new york posts page six. Why did people love him . Was it his personality or his connections, his ability to throw a good party . I imagine that theres a lot of couples out there now with children, who met at one of bairds party. No one knows when and where baird and hoop meet but by the early 80s, theyre best buds. They love andy warhol and discover synergy in merging the psychedelic stars with the disco ball. Baird and hoop join forces prompting east village artists at in clubs such as maxs kansas city, palladium, and webster hall. They were big parties. You know, i mean, they were sort of cheesy. He would say on the invites, copious hors doeuvres. So, theyd be 10 people deep. Youd be lucky if you could get one drink before they closed the open bar. Some events feature bairds growing celebrity art collection. By bairds counting, he spends over a Million Dollars to add works by bob dylan, dee dee ramone, vincent price, and buddy hackett. He also snatches up works by simply notorious figures john gotti, adolf hitler, charles manson, and john wayne gacy. His art shows attract even more boldface names. He kept a database, and so he could mail out, you know, 5,000 invitations at a time. If you were on bairds list, you know youre going to run into a 100 people you know. Youre bound to see hoop. He sort of had the same crew always there. But every great party comes to an end. And in 2007, concern is spreading among bairds closest friends, like Marianne Macy. You know, the 4 00 or 5 00 a. M. Lifestyle had to change. He didnt look healthy. Peoples lifestyles changed, and baird was still out there doing a lot of the same stuff. Do you want to do it afterwards . No, right now is cool. I think it was more like work for him later. On february 21, 2008, baird jones, life of the party circuit, is found dead in his apartment. Hes 53 years old. Do you remember when you heard he had passed . I was shocked. I mean, he was way too young to die, and i didnt know that he had ever had any health problems. An autopsy reveals it was a heart attack. In his will, baird gives all his property to his good friend hoop, an estate said to be worth 2 million, not including his celebrity art collection. How surprised was he that he had gotten this inheritance . He was pretty surprised. He, he didnt expect it, really. I think it would just like baird to take care of his buddy, and thats what he did. Do you want to see a bunch of the celebrity art downstairs . Zero mostel. Heres a, a jack kevorkian. The inheritance doesnt change hoop much. He busies himself with his cars, which are written up in the new york times. Hes even interviewed by geraldo and featured in indie films. This is my matchbox mobile. I was commissioned by the toy company mattel. They gave me 500 cars. You can play with it, too. But as fate would have it, hoops wild ride is coming to an end as well. Tell me what happened. He had a rash. He just thought it was psoriasis. And then he got this one rash that didnt disappear, and it continued to get worse. The diagnosis cancer. My artwork gives me inspiration to keep going. I get up, and i look out the window, and i said, i got to do a little more to that car today. [ barking ] hoop keeps up his life as an artist and new york character with help from his older brother. I gave him all kinds of nutritional stuff. He had no side effects from the chemo at all right until the very end. In september 2011, hoop dies at the age of 64. Its a hole in your life when you lose part of your family. Nothing can fill it. Hoop leaves everything to his big brother, hugh. We were opposites but totally bonded. What was mine was his, and what was his was mine. And now, whats hughs are two strange inheritances in one, and as youre about to see, a big dilemma. What to do with it all . Heres another quiz question forou. These three pictures are from the baird jones celebrity art collection. Can you guess which was painted by Leonardo Dicaprio . A, b, or c . The answer after the break. At fidelity, trades are now just 4. 95. We cut the price of trades to give investors even more value. And at 4. 95, you can trade with a clear advantage. Fidelity, where smarter investors will always be. And at 4. 95, you can trade with a clear advantage. Deartheres no other way to say this. Its over. Ive found a permanent escape from monotony. Together, we are perfectly balanced, our senses awake, our hearts racing as one. I know this is sudden, but they say if you love something. Set it free. See you around, giulia ive spent my life planting a sizesix, nonslip shoe into that door. On this side, i want my customers to relax and enjoy themselves. But these days its phones before forks. They want wifi out here. But behind that door, i need a private connection for my business. Wifi pro from comcast business. Public wifi for your customers. Private wifi for your business. Strong and secure. Good for a door. And a network. Comcast business. Built for security. Built for business. So, which of these pictures from the baird jones collection was painted by Leonardo Dicaprio . Its c. For the record, a was painted by jonathan winters, and b by dinah shore. In 2011, hugh hooper comes into his strange inheritance, two bizarre art collections created and curated by a couple of quintessential new york city characters. The first was his eccentric brother, hoop, who produced dozens of wacky sculptures from various automobiles. The second came from hoops preppy partyplanner pal, baird jones a large collection of artworks by a vast array of famous and notorious figures. He focuses first on his brothers car sculptures. Two things are immediately clear. He has no place for them, and theres no place to sell them. All the fun in these cars had been had because he isnt here. So, hugh lets his brothers friends cart away any hoop mobiles they fancy. But, hugh, arent you a little concerned that youll lose that connection to him . No. No, the connection isnt in things. The connections in your heart. Hugh is less emotionally attached to the second weird art collection. The hundreds of celebrity paintings and drawings that he inherited through his brother from baird jones. Whos that . Okay. Thats the queen of monaco. Ooh. Grace kelly. So, theres royalty. Yes. Jimmy stewart. Jimmy stewart. Yeah. Harvey. That was the character. John gotti, bikini, nice. You know what he was thinking about. Thats one of my favorites. Remember, baird jones spoke about spending a Million Dollars to acquire all this artwork. Hugh decides to auction it all off. This is muhammad ali. In the ring. In the ring. Hugh, youre going to sell this . Yes, i am because whos going to enjoy it . Nobodys getting any chance to look at it. Thats what art is for, its for people to appreciate. You think its worth anything . I would imagine it is. What, i dont know. Hes about to find out. Lets open up at 1,500. 1,600, 1,700, 1,800. Whats your strange inheritance story . Wed love to tell it. Send me an email or go to our website, srangeinheritance. Com. I got a mortgage offer from the bank today. Whuuuuuat . You never just get one offer. Go to lendingtree. Com and shop multiple loan offers for free free . Yeah. Could save thousands. You should probably buy me dinner. Pappas eatin steak tonight. No. At lendingtree, shop and compare loan offers from top lenders and in just 5 minutes, you could save thousands. Lendingtree, when banks compete, you win. I love date night. Somebodys ruining it. Yeah. Well you could leave if you wanted to . Now, back to strange inheritance. In june 2016, hugh hoopers ready to auction off whats left of his strange inheritance, a trove of celebrity artwork collected by a preppy new york Party Promoter named baird jones. Jones is said to have poured more than a Million Dollars into the collection before he died and willed it to hughs brother, hoop. Hugh chooses robert rogal of rogallery in Long Island City to handle the sale. Mel brooks, peter falk, jimi hendrix, adolf hitler. Quite a weird collection but a lot of namebrand material. Its the steven hooper, a. K. A. Hoop, celebrity art collection. And off we go. Internet and phone bidders are standing by. Opening price on this one is 100. It starts quietly with a work entitled selfportrait with butterfly by the famous french mime, marcel marceau. At 100, 100 and quarter now. Got a bid of, go 125. At 125 now, at 125, last call. Sold at 100. Mel brooks. This cartoon scribble by a famous funny man fares somewhat better. 400. Peter falk. Detective columbo beats that easily. 600. This john gotti. Crime pays a little more. Bikini on mars, sold for 1,100. We continue. Horror hospital, ink and marker drawing, dee dee ramone. Were at 1,300 right now, looking for 1,400, 1,400. Give me 1,500. Sold at 1,500. And remember that muhammad ali painting called sting like a bee . 1,500, 1,600, 1,700, it packs a bit more punch. All done 2,800. Alas, thats the biggest celebrity hit of the night. Buddy hackett, sold, 250. Rudy giuliani, 800. At this rate. David bowie, sold at 550. Jimi hendrix. Baird jones milliondollar investment in celebrity art. Sold at 300. Henry fonda. Is looking like a big bust. Pass it. Pass, and well pass. Moving along. This colorpencil doodle by actor ed asner starts with an minimum bid of 400 bucks. Any bids, 400 . And well pass. [ buzzer sounds ] will Matthew Broderick do any better . Any bids at 100 . 100 only. Nope. And were passing. [ buzzer sounds ] and we have now courtyard of the old residency in munich. The artist is adolf hitler. Well start at 50 and now 75. Were looking for 75 on this. Last call, were at 100. Sold at 100 and glad to have it pass me. Out of the 300 works put up for auction, about a third of them sell. The grand total, 43k. Hugh expresses surprise if not disappointment. It was some things that didnt sell that really i thought would sell very easily. But i think it was a good sale, and it also honors my brother, and thats very important to me. The unsold items include works by james dean, fred astaire, phyllis diller, and kurt vonnegut, which, come to think of it, is a pretty good start to a invite list for yet another cosmicart happening baird and hoop are surely planning wherever they are. It will be a long time before we see anything like them. They were both really unusual people. Together they were fantastic. So much thats hip in one generation is totally uncool to the next. Old uncle hoop once drove his niece, hughs daughter, to school in one of his hoop mobiles. The teen was mortified. After that, all hugh had to say to keep her in line was, watch out, young lady, or uncle hoop will be driving you again tomorrow. Im jamie colby. Thanks for watching strange inheritance. And remember you cant take it with you. A man who can have anything. Hed lay awake nights trying to think of a way to make a dollar. Throws nothing away. You must have said to grandpa, this can go, cant it . Yes. And we told him that a million times. One strange inheritance. Wow, and its packed one heavy burden. How much do you have . Oh, about 3 Million Pounds. One heck of a yard sale. This has got to be the largest ive ever seen in my life. I said, if you can organize it, we can inventory it, and we can sell it. [ auctioneer calling ] [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ] im jamie colby. And today, im in tulsa, oklahoma. Im here to meet the son of a remarkably successful businessman and epic hoarder. File this under 80 years of grit and true metal and 40 acres of scrap metal. My name is john hemphill. In february 2016, my father passed away. He left me a Thriving Company thats a testament to his business acumen. He also left me a 3 millionpound headache that says a lot about my dad, too. I meet john in the lobby of Hemphill Corporation. And this was your dad. Yeah, this is dad. He started the business back in the 50s. And im running it now. Come on. Ill show you. As john drives me around the company, i come to understand the jekyll and hyde nature of his strange inheritance. These look like cell towers. Yeah, these are guide towers for wireless communication. And thats our Main Business now. But his dad built that business while indulging his industrialstrength urge for collecting. Big stuff iron, scrap metal, machinery. Things you cant squirrel away in a closet. Take, john says, these assemblyline carts, please. Did he really need this many . Oh, my goodness. No. And he didnt need the ones that are out in the yard. We have dozens and dozens. It all starts with this serious little guy, Elmer Hemphill, born in 1935 on a farm near tryon, oklahoma, to parents elsie and marvel. He learned his work ethic from my grandparents because they believed in work. The hemphills, like other oklahomans, are hit by drought and dust storms during the great depression. Many of their neighbors flee to california. But they stay put. When elmer is just a kid, a stranger shows up at the farm to buy some hay. And the boy jumps at the chance to make a sale. I see you got four bales of hay there. My grandma looked outside, and he was talking to a guy that had shown up. How much you want for all four . For all four . She went out and asked if, uh, she could help him. And he said, this young mans already taken care of it. Turns out he did make a fair deal, probably better than grandpa wouldve made. But, uh. How old was he . She said he was 5 at the time. So he was a pintsized deal maker. Yes. At age 13, elmer convinces the town banker to give him a business loan. What is a 13yearold borrowing money for . Well, he was gonna use the money to buy registered sheep and raise em and sell em. And he made some good money. He had a mind like a steel trap. Earl hart grew up with elmer, and they became friends for life. Elmerd lay awake nights trying to think of a way to make a dollar. He was just determined to succeed. In 1953, the teenage entrepreneur heads to the big city, tulsa, with 600 bucks and a simple philosophy. It was you never know how far a toadll jump until you punch it. What it really meant was you cant just sit back and hope things happen. You gotta go after it. And he was definitely one to punch the toad. Like when he starts his own drilling company, then goes on to manufacture Machine Parts for aerospace and military applications. Along the way, elmer gets married and starts a family. As soon as hes old enough, son john joins him in the business. Signs of his dads obsession are everywhere. John just doesnt yet see them. My first job was cutting weeds. And i remember a lot of the stuff thats still here back in the 70s. Having grown up with all this stuff, i really never thought of it as being as crazy as it was. No kidding. After all, business is booming. By the late 1970s, elmers company has 150 employees. And his familys growing, too. Four kids and then a brood of grandkids, including johns daughter, kristen, a chip off the ol block, who learns about business and life from her papaw. Sometimes he failed. And sometimes he really succeeded. But either way, he kept a good attitude. He also keeps that stubborn dust bowl waste not, want not mentality that increasingly baffles john. He would keep a piece of pipe that was, you know, 1 foot long. Bigger stuff, too, like this defunct drilling rig purchased for 25k for a Railroad Project in West Virginia back in 1967. Or this contraption that dates back to the 80s. He actually invented this drilling rig for a special project for the tulsa expo to lash on to a pier to help secure the foundation. The Tulsa Exposition Center endures as a city symbol. The big rig just gathers dust. But john doesnt complain. No questions asked of dad . No questions asked, no. When he looks at something, he doesnt see what a lot of us see. He sees potential. In the mid80s, when the price of crude oil plummets, elmer punches another one of those toads and ends up in the business of building transmission towers for those newfangled cellphones. We started building cell tower sites, and weve been building em ever since. Probably built about 5,000 of em. But with each new endeavor, elmers stockpile of retired equipment gets taller and wider and, john knows, increasingly irrelevant to the business at hand. What will hemphill ever do with these extralarge hydraulic rigs or thousands of feet of fencing . And is anyone saying at that point, oh, my god, we gotta unload some of this stuff . No. It was pretty much known that we just needed to put it where he wanted it put [laughs] and live with it. But living with it is about to become geometrically harder, for elmers no longer content with stockpiling scrap and equipment left over from hemphills own jobs. Now he starts actually gobbling up other companies junk just because. I dont care what it was. And if it was cheap enough, hed buy it. And he said, someday, itll be worth something. Thats next. But first, our strange inheritance quiz question. Radioshack, samsung or motorola . The answer after the break. This lovely lady has a typical Airline Credit card. So she only earns double miles on purchases she makes from that airline. Whatd you earn double miles on, please . Ugh. Thats unfortunate. Theres a better option. The capital one venture card. With venture, you earn unlimited double miles on every purchase, everywhere, every day. Not just airline purchases. Seems like a nobrainer. Whats in your wallet . So we need tablets installed. With the menu app ready to roll. In 12 weeks. Yeah. The world of fast food is being changed by faster networks. Data, applications, customer experience. Which is why comcast business delivers Consistent Network Performance and speed across all your locations. Fast connections everywhere. Thats how you outmaneuver. Say carl, we have a question about your brokerage fees. Fees . What did you have in mind . I dont know. 4. 95 per trade . Uhhh. And i was wondering if your brokerage offers some sort of guarantee . Guarantee . Where we can get our fees and commissions back if were not happy. So can you offer me what schwab is offering . Whats with all the questions . Ask your broker if theyre offering 4. 95 online equity trades and a satisfaction guarantee. If you dont like their answer, ask again at schwab. So, what company made the worlds first mobile phone call in 1973 . Its c, motorola. From a manhattan street corner, exec Martin Cooper called the headquarters of rival at t to claim bragging rights. Oklahoma business mogul Elmer Hemphill spends decades amassing a ginormous stash of industrial machinery, spare parts, and scrap metal that nobody, least of all his Thriving Company, really needs. Having worked with his dad for years, elmers son, john, is tiring of watching it all pile up. Did he tell you what he was planning to do with it . He would always talk about how we could use it to build overhead bridge cranes and build fencing. But elmers just a magnet that never lets anything go. Eventually, hes drawn to other companies scrap, like this platerolling system that elmer buys for 75,000, then puts out to pasture. If it was a piece of metal, hed take it. I dont care what it was. And if it was cheap enough, hed buy it. And he said, someday, itll be worth something. If only it were just metals, says his son, john. He used to say that if a, uh, trainload of pencils was cheap enough, hed buy it. That pencil train never arrives. Instead, elmer catches the ones full of tractor seats, file cabinets, and office chairs. I assume ive seen it all . Oh, no. No, theres theres a whole bunch more. Bolts, bricks, drill bits, chains, springs, trucks, trailers, you name it. It all seems so random. It definitely is. It looks like junk. But, to him, was it treasure . Oh, it was definitely treasure. If theres a day when john realizes his shrewd businessman dad is also, lets just say it, a hoarder on the industrial scale, it may be when this shipment arrives. What do we have here . These are, uh, machining tables from mcdonnell douglas. And they helped win the cold war. In what way . They were used to build the instruments and the parts for, uh, military aircraft. The cold war ends in 1991. But elmers biggest hoarding years are still ahead of him. He grows his scrap collection to fill multiple warehouses and litter 40 acres of land surrounding his company headquarters. So, jamie, heres an interesting piece. And its been sitting here for over 10 years. Worth anything . Its really just scrap today. By this time, elmers granddaughter, kristen, is trying to coax him to let go. Something like this, you mustve said to grandpa, this can go, cant it . Yes. And we told him that a million times. But that old tulsa drilling rig stays, like everything else, including elmer, into his 80s. Hes always been an iron man. But now theres rust on his fenders and creaks in his hinges. And, uh, one day, i said, elmer, why dont you retire . Oh, i dont wanna retire. He said, when i die, i wanna be walking across this shop floor. In february 2016, elmer l. Hemphill passes away surrounded by friends and family at the age of 80. It was the night of the super bowl. My stepmom, audrey, was right beside him. But we knew that it was time for him to go. Son john inherits the business and all that heavy metal his dad hoarded while running it. All this steel how much do you have . Oh, id estimate probably about 3 Million Pounds. Millions . Thats amazing. It just grew and and grew and grew and, you know, we just need to get rid of it. And hes going to leave that job to his heir, daughter kristen. My grandfather could be rolling in his grave right now. Up next, getting on top of this heap. Ive appraised everything in america thats ethical, moral, or legal. And when i saw hemphills collection, i was overwhelmed. Heres another quiz question for you. The st. Louis gateway arch, the George Washington bridge, or the beijing National Stadium . The answer when we return. So which architectural marvel is the largest steel structure in the world . Its the beijing National Stadium. Dubbed the birds nest, it was built for the 2008 olympics with 110,000 tons of steel. When Elmer Hemphill dies, he leaves his son john his oklahoma business empire. But the strange part of this inheritance is a stockpile of castoff equipment, Machine Parts, steel, and scrap. Its a 3 millionpound headache. So john figures hell leave that to his daughter, kristen, and soninlaw, jim. I told jim and kristen that if its a project they wanted to tackle, that id love for them to see if they had ideas. Im always interested in taking on new projects. So dad asked us. And we were crazy enough to do it. I really felt like i needed to step up and help my dad out and help the family. But you cant just call goodwill to pick it all up. So, where to begin . Did grandpa keep notes on all this stuff . He did, actually. In the back room, there is a library full of notes that papaw took about each project. So do they give values . Were there bills of sale . No, there wasnt values. Thank goodness for ebay. With a couple of mouse clicks, kristen finds out these antique carts, built to roll on railroad tracks, can fetch 1,500 bucks apiece. Elmer has hundreds of em. And parts of the steel yard that look like scrap could be worth tens of thousands to individual buyers. Kristens thinking, maybe grandpa elmer was right. And if she finds the right buyer, shell turn his scrap iron into gold. But her husband, jim, weighs in with a reality check. Theres 3 Million Pounds of this stuff i dont wanna spend two or three years doing this. So he and kristen approach kristens dad with a proposal. How about a massive auction, onsite at hemphill and across the world on the internet . They said, well, what would you think about auctioning it . And i thought, boy, i dont know if dad would want that. And then i went home that night and im thinking, well, i dont know why i didnt think of that earlier. So kristen and jim call in various auction houses. The Immediate Response youre nuts. Most of the auctioneers that jim and kristen talked to basically said, we cant handle this. This is way too much for us. When i saw hemphills collection, i was overwhelmed. This has got to be the largest collection that ive ever seen in my life. Louis dakil of dakil auctions in oklahoma city, however, is up for the challenge. Ive appraised everything in america thats ethical, moral, or legal. And i said, if you can organize it, we can inventory it, and we can sell it. Theres one saying we have in our industry you cant outlive iron. I have told em if we make some big money on it, great. And if we dont, its okay. I think success is it being outta here. Sounds like its time to let the bidding begin. Some things that i thought were, you know, potentially going in the trash are treasures to some people. Thats next. Whats your strange inheritance story . Wed love to tell it. Send me an email or go to our website, strangeinheritance. Com. Ive been blind since birth. I go through periods where its hard to sleep at night, and stay awake during the day. Learn about non24 by calling 8448442424. Or visit my24info. Com. Here comes the fun with seadoo. Starting at just 5,299 and get 0 percent financing. Visit seadoo. Com today. Its happening, its happening in the modern world, you can control just about anything with an app. Your son is turning on all the lights again and with the esurance mobile app, you can do the same thing with your car insurance. Like access your id card, file a claim, or manage your policy. Its so easy its almost scary. Lets get outta here thats auto and Home Insurance for the modern world. Esurance. An allstate company. Click or call. Now back to strange inheritance. In 2016, members of the hemphill family john, his daughter, kristen, and her husband, jim join forces to auction off 40 acres of castoff machinery and equipment. Its a strange inheritance left to john by his dad, an oklahoma businessman with a love for all things iron and steel. Louis dakil of dakil auctions says most of the bidding will take place online. And the plan is everything sells, no matter the price. This auction is an absolute auction. No minimums. Everything that goes on the block will be sold. It takes kristen and jim three months to itemize and catalog grandpas gargantuan inventory of heavy metal. Finally, in august 2016, the big moment is here. How many lots are we talking . 1,186 lots. One of the first items up for bid, this antique trailer, fetches 300 bucks. These 100foot monopole towers left over from elmers early days in the cell Tower Business go for 230 each. Things are selling fast, but cheap. Ive been watching all morning, since 9 00. Some things that i thought were gonna go for more are actually selling for less. [ auctioneer calling ] like these antique railroad carts, similar to one she saw on ebay for 1,000. Hundreds sell, but for only 17 bucks apiece. [ auctioneer calling ] then theres that old railroad drilling rig, purchased in 1967 for 25k. It sells, but for only 4,000. And the gigantic platerolling system elmer bought in an old shipyard in South Carolina for 75 grand sells for just 1,000. My grandfather could potentially be rolling in his grave right now. But kristens delighted when this hydraulic plate shearer, designed to cut metal and alloy, goes for 2,025. And that rig elmer designed for the tulsa expo building, it goes for 4k. I had no idea how much that was gonna sell for, so that was a surprise. Over the next 48 hours, the hammer falls on thousands of items. We sold some things for 4,000. We sold some things for 50 cents. So the price range was pretty large. So are you guys exhilarated or exhausted . Both. I would say both. [ laughs ] the grand total 175,000 bucks. Not exactly petty cash. But considering the time, effort, and money elmer invested, they have to admit, this was one toad that didnt jump so far. They love their grandfather. They love their father. But basically, his perfect storm was buying and storing, but never getting rid of anything. Thats why, for john hemphill, the bottom line is all good. His strange inheritance is out the door. Its kind of, uh, oh, bittersweet because i know dad would wanna hang on to it. But i know it needs to be released. And ultimately, its its a good thing. Back in 2013 when the Hemphill Corporation was renovating the office, elmers kids surprised him with a gift befitting a successful entrepreneur a fancy desk, a big comfy chair and a flatscreen tv. Elmer never touched it. Instead, he took his ratty old desk, bought this secondhand trailer, put the desk inside, and drove around in it to every job site so he could be close to the action. And thats where youd find him till the end of his days. Im jamie colby. Thanks so much for watching strange inheritance. And remember you cant take it with you. Er og body treatment system for crepey skin male announcer that can deliver stunning results on your arms, your legs, your hands, your chest, and even your neck female announcer featuring legendary actress and crepe erase success story, jane seymour soft music crepey skin makes me feel. 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